Let Your Light Shine – July 17, 2017

Today’s Scripture… “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me.” Galatians 2:20

Thoughts for Today… Has this ever happened to you?

While traveling down the highway you meet or you pass a lot of big eighteen wheeler trucks on the road. Most of them are very courteous in their driving practices. Most of them are considerate of smaller vehicles as they head down the interstate. Most of them…then there are the other guys. You know the kind I’m talking about. They think they own the road and whatever you do, you best get out of their way. Well the thing that boils my potatoes, is the fact they always have these safety signs on the back of their trailers. “If you can’t see my mirrors, I can’t see you”…”beware this vehicle makes wide right hand turns”…and then you see this one quite often, Headlights are turned on at all times for your protection.

I’ve seen that last sign on big trucks but when I got around some of them…their headlights WEREN’T ON. His sign said one thing, but his actions said another. I thought to myself “He needs to either turn his lights on, or change his sign.” If you say you’ve got your light on, then there ought to be light!

Well guess what? We Christians wear a sign too. We wear the name of Jesus Christ… and it ought to be plastered in large letters across our lives.

But, I wonder…is our lights turned on? You see, the sign that we wear — that name of Christian — should be verified by the light that is shining forth from the things we say and do. If we say that we are Christians, then there ought to be light! If we say that we belong to Jesus, then you ought to be able to see it in our lives.

Not just on Sundays. Not just when we are in Church. Not just when we are in a good mood and everything is going great. Not just when we are around other believers. But, rather at ALL times. In everything we say and do. The light of Jesus should shine through.

How we deal with that grumpy co-worker, how we respond when our whole world comes crashing down, how we handle temptation and hardships and the hurtful actions of others — all of these things should reflect our relationship with our Savior.

If we wear the sign of Christian, then we ought to shine our lights. And shine them brightly!

Friend, it saddens me so to see folks who brag that they belong to Jesus, but then live as if they’ve never even heard of Him. It’s like wearing a sign that says you’re going to shine your light, and then never turning the light on.

We do so much damage to our testimony and to the precious Name of Jesus when we say we love Him and then deny Him by our lifestyle.

And so, it might be a bold reminder to us all…

…”Turn on your light, or change your sign.”

“Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.” (Matthew 5:16)